In her first year at PNC Bank , Brandie Falice, who was hired as an entry-level banker in 2018, received a promotion. She was on the fast track to management, surviving several PNC branch closures during COVID-19 to become an assistant bank manager in 2022, her fourth year on the job.
Next stop: Branch manager. Or so Falice thought.
In a discrimination lawsuit she filed against her former employer, Falice alleges she was discouraged from applying for a branch manager opening in Doraville, located on the outskirts of Atlanta because she was a bad demographic fit. The Doraville branch manager served mostly Hispanics and was seeking a Hispanic to fill the job, Falice said she was told by her regional manager. She didn’t interview but was ready to make her move in the fall of 2023 when there was an opening at the branch in Peachtree Corners, a northern suburb of Atlanta.
But once again, she was told by the regional manager she didn’t fit the demographics of that branch’s mostly white clientele, that only 20 percent of the customers in Peachtree Corners were Black (that’s higher than the percentage of Black people in the United States). Moreover, as a single mother, she could not work weekend events, she said she was told.